I don’t mean for this to be racist at all, it is a serious question. My police unit was OC (pepper) sprayed today and the instructors told us the lighter you are the more it would affect you, especially if you had blue eyes. Me and the really white guys physically couldn’t open our eyes for like 2 hours and we were in severe pain. On the other hand the dark people were way less affected and able to see within half an hour. One really dark Rhodesian guy was literally unphased. I know that redheads are generally less affected by anesthesia so I thought this might be similar. Is there a known physiological mechanism behind this because I can’t find anything.
Why are darker people less affected by Capsicum (pepper spray)?
r/ask
Comments
*I and the really white guys; or more appropriately “the really white guys and I”
The outlier here is white dudes from Texas.
Its because most white people don’t SEASON THEIR DAMN FOOD!
Evolved to being sprayed more often?
The instructors could be just passing on some nonsense they heard from someone who taught them. A lot of people believe that chocolate causes acne. In the case of pepper spray, the sad conclusion is that they are telling you to use more pepper spray on Black people. I think this is what people are talking about when they talk about systematic racism. If it’s not, please give me a better definition.
Using the term “Rhodesian” here is a bigger red flag than I’ve ever seen at a May Day celebration.
It’s not based on skin at all. It’s based on how much Capsaicin you regularly consume. That can differ greatly based on culture so there may be trends in skin color but it’s not based on genetics at all. Also you got placebo-ed. If they hadn’t told you it was going to affect you more you wouldn’t have felt it quite as bad as you did. Your brain told you it was going to be bad so it made it worse.
They’re already seasoned
Probably used to it
This doesnt sound true at all and your anecdote doesn’t really support the claim one way or the other. Unless someone can post a study equating melanin to capsicum resistance this is complete bullshit in my eyes. Real science. Not anecdotes
Could be based on the incredibly racist myth that black people don’t feel as much pain as white people.